How the Tide Flows
by Duckett-1
Summary: Almyra James is a pirate aboard the crew of the Black Pearl. She can't feel, not anything, and she'd rather be dead. It has been years since she felt love, and that love was for her former captain—Jack Sparrow. When he wouldn't let her save him in the mutiny, they lost one another. During their siege on Port Royal, she found him again, and now she needs his help to live again.
1. Prologue - Curse of the Black Pearl

Almyra gasped, turning towards the west like a flag under a sharp wind.

The ocean had pulsed with the message, the calling. The coin.

The final coin and this could all be righted, fixed, their accursed lives saved. Their damned souls freed once and for all.

The wind howled around them, the sky darkening with clouds and the ship turned almost of her own free will towards what every member of crew had gathered on the port side to face.

 _At last_. She thought, a feeling as close to joy that she had felt in a long time bubbling up in her cold chest.


	2. Chapter One

"Port Royal, boys." Almyra whispered as Barbossa started calling ordered before the Black Pearl fell into a hush, the ship heading right for dock with only the sound of creaking ropes and waterlogged wood.

The night was dark, the clouds thick and hiding the nearly full moon hanging above them before the first boom of cannon fire sounded and Almyra never flinched as the ship decimated the shoreline town, and soon the crew was disembarking, with only one thought; find the medallion. And kill and burn anything between.

Bloodlust was the strongest and truest emotion they could feel without it.

"Pintel, Ragetti, Koehler," she called, leaping onto the sand herself in search of the last piece. "With me."

* * *

 _That one_. Almost with a single mind all four pirates turned towards the large house of Governor Swann, feeling the pull of the medallion somewhere inside.

She kicked down one of the doors, leading the men inside with her sword out.

"Split up," she ordered sharply, "check every part of the home. Leave nothing unturned. If you miss it, I'll cut your damned heads off."

"Yes, ma'am." Pintel said quickly, he and Ragetti splitting off. "She scares me." He whispered as they went up the stairs.

Almyra rolled her eyes, starting up the elaborate staircase to the bedrooms upstairs. The medallion had to be there.

She froze for a moment as she entered a bedroom that obviously belonged to a woman. She frowned, she knew that the child of William Turner was a boy, not a girl. Something was off.

She could question the woman when she found her, but the most important thing was finding that medallion, the blood could come later.

"Come out now and I won't kill you." She called into the seemingly empty room.

Almyra turned and saw the closet, the door open just a crack. "Darling," she called softly, her voice gentle and smooth. "All I want is your medallion. Give it to me, and you'll live."

Nothing changed in the room.

"I don't know where you got the medallion, girl. But hiding from me won't protect you." She warned, stepping closer. "The gold, you have no idea what you have, do you? No one will hurt you if you just give me the medallion."

She opened the door to see what was inside, and the young woman dropped hot coals on Almyra from a warming pan.

Almyra cried out in surprise much more than pain and backed up quickly, and as the other woman tried to swing the pan at the pirate, she caught it on her sword. She glared at the woman with fierce blue-green eyes. "You shouldn't have done that. I was going to let you live."

She gasped in fear, dropping the pan and fleeing as quickly as she could from the room.

"Get her!" Almyra ordered as she rushed down the stairs. "She has the medallion."

The pirates all turned towards a the fleeing girl and rushed after her as Almyra leapt the rest of her way down the stairs.

"Don't kill her!" She ordered when the men took off a little too eagerly. She knew the girl wasn't Bootstrap's, but that didn't mean she didn't know where to find his son.

"Parley," the woman called when she was cornered.

"What?"

"Parley," she repeated, and Pintel and Ragetti looked confused.

"It means we can't kill her, stupid." Almyra explained, rolling her eyes. "We have to take her to Barbossa. It's part of the code. So you boys handle that, if it's not to much for you to understand."

"Where are you going?" Pintel asked with a frown.

She turned to look at those with her. "For a drink."

The others seemed unsure for a long moment, but that wasn't Almyra's problem any longer. What remained of the solid oak door slammed behind her on the way out and she walked steadily through the burning town.


	3. Chapter Two

She passed the prison and heard a familiar male voice—an unmistakeable male voice. "You can keep waving that bone forever, but that dog is never going to move."

"Well, I'm sorry if we haven't resigned ourselves to the gallows just yet." One of the prisoners said in an almost strained voice.

The sound of cannons echoed across Port Royal.

Jack shot to his feet. "I know those guns." He looked out his barred cell window. "It's _the Pearl_."

" _The Black Pearl_?" One of the prisoners asked. "I've heard of her. She's been preying on ships and settlements for a near ten years. Never leaves any survivors."

"No survivors?" Jack asked with a smile. "I wonder where the stories come from, then."'

Almyra slipped inside almost silently, seeing Jack Sparrow looking out the window at firing cannons.

She smiled slightly. "Jack Sparrow," she called, leaning against the doorway. "I thought you were dead."

He lifted his hat quickly, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Ah, my mutineering love," he set the hat back on his face, "come to mock, have you?"

"Jack, you know I was not involved in the mutiny against you." She said simply, stepping toward his cell. "I loved you. If you recall, you told me not to fight them so I would survive."

"I now seem to regret that decision," Jack said simply. "I should have let you stay on that island with me."

"And done what, Jack? You only had the one bullet." She whispered, threading her arms through the bars of his cell and leaning forward, looking down at him and trying to feel anything for the man she had nearly killed herself over ten years ago. Nothing.

"Still could have enjoyed the company." He muttered, hat still over his face.

"Would you at least look at me?" She asked, setting her chin on one of the horizontal bars, the others pushing her hat back as she stretched a thin arm out towards him, the rich ruddy light of the torches behind her replaced by the pale blue of the moon and her blouse turned to tatters on her bones, silver rings glittering softly on long fingers lacking any flesh.

She jerked back from the moonlight, not wanting Jack to see her like that, even though her feelings for him had been stripped from her.

Jack looked up at her, her tan skin returned and her long wavy hair braided back beneath her hat. "You look better with my hat on."

"I need your help, Jack," she said softly. "Barbossa stole a cursed treasure, and Bootstrap stole the last piece we need to reverse it." She reached out toward the light again. "I breathe, but I don't live. I feel nothing any more, Jack, no matter how much I want to."

He sat up quickly at that, looking at her arm in shock. "The curse," He breathed, "it's real."

"Very," she whispered, quickly pulling her arm back. "And I need you to help me. Bootstrap sent the medallion to his son, but I don't know who he is, and now a woman in the Governor's house has it."

"Elizabeth. I saw the medallion." He confirmed, standing and starting for Almyra, reaching through the bars himself to pick the hat up off her head. "Need any help with her, love?"

"No," Almyra said softly, backing out of the moonlight so Jack wouldn't see her ruined face. "She's being loaded onboard as we speak, with the medallion. But the idiots on the Pearl believe she's the child of Bootstrap."

Jack laughed, arms hanging over the bars lazily. "Never were able to keep up with you, hm?"

Almyra rolled her eyes, looking out at the window slowly, watching the Pearl. "I've stayed too long, Jack. Barbossa will be waiting. You need to find his son, Jack. Find Bill's boy. Find him for me."

"I'll do whatever you want, love," he said with a crooked grin at her. "But just for old times sake, what's in it for me?"

"If we fix this curse, you'll be able to kill Barbossa for what he did to you." Almyra's voice fell quieter. "And I might love you again."

Jack drew a hand down his chin. "Might?" He tisked. "I'm going to use the shot in that pistol." He pointed towards the wall where his belongings were hanging. "And I'm going to end him. And you, my little siren, will love me again. Savvy?"

She smiled, nodding at him. "It's been so long, Jack. Even without feelings, I missed you. I'll see you soon."

Jack pulled her back toward him, away from the moonlight, and kissed her through the bars. "The next one," he said quietly. "You will feel something."

She smiled slightly. "There's something to look forward to."

He winked at her and gave his hat one more affectionate flick before sending her on her way with a push low on her back. "Remember our bargain, love."

She smiled again. "I've never forgotten a bargain with you, Jack. Just make sure to get me the son of Bootstrap. It's the only way to fix this."

Jack nodded. "I will. As long as you have Miss Swann, you'll have leverage against him."

Almyra smirked. "Then I'll make sure Barbossa doesn't get rid of her."

Jack grinned. "Until then, love."


	4. Chapter Three

"Jack."

The pirate groaned, pulling his hat a little lower. "Do go away." He complained, basking in the sunlight filtering through the hole blasted through the wall of the cell next to his.

"I need your help." The blacksmith insisted, pressing against the bars of the cell.

"Bloody hell, not you," He grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Did those pirates last night make a eunuch of you?"

"This is serious," he insisted, "they took Elizabeth."

"Ah, so it _is_ about a girl, now isn't it?"

"I need to get her back. You know about _The_ _Pearl_. Surely you know where it docks."

"I do." Jack confirmed. "On an island that no one knows how to find unless they've been there before." He leaned back again, setting his hat down over his face once more.

"Which is all the more reason I need you, Jack," Will said with a sigh, sounding like he hated the thought of needing the pirate's help.

"Fine, get me out of here, and I'll help you find your dear Elizabeth." Jack refrained from sharing his own reasons for helping Will—he wanted his Myra back.

He nodded and rushed to try and find a broken beam to prop against the door as Jack sat up slightly to look at him. _It couldn't_ _be_ … _could_ _it?_ _But_ _he_ _looks_ _like_ _Bootstrap_.

"What did you say your name was again?"

"Will. Will Turner."

"Ah, short for William I presume? Good strong name. After your father?" He asked, watching him carefully for any response.

Will paused and looked at him. "How did you know that?"

"Lucky guess," Jack said simply. "How are you getting me out of here?"

Will glanced down at the beam he had broken off. "I helped designed these doors." He explained. "And with the right application of leverage—" he cut off and pushed down, the door popping off its setting. "—it'll come right off."

Jack stood up and examined the door before stepping over it, and standing beside Will. "We'll need a ship."

* * *

The captain laughed at the two as Jack and Will swung onto _the_ _Dauntless_. "The two of you can't possibly hope to sail this ship by yourselves."

Will glanced at Jack and within a few minutes the whole crew was on a lifeboat.

"Now what?" Will asked, looking at Jack and the pirate grinned.

"Well, since you asked…"

* * *

 _The_ _Interceptor_ was rapidly approaching, and Jack kept trying to get Will to do anything productive with the sails as it did, motioning and shouting orders until the castle sailing ship drew close enough.

"Now," he said quickly, "do make yourself scarce. And don't jump too late." He added with a smile and a pat on Will's shoulder.

They faced the group lead by Norrington, and then vanished as the whole crew of the Interceptor boarded and first Jack then Will swung between the ships and cut the large warship free of the smaller, faster, vessel. And the. They were off, on a ship claimed to be unmatched in speed.

Once they hit open water, Jack was sailing quickly, but Will had a few questions, like how he knew where his name came from.

"How did you know what my name was?"

"I knew your father." Jack said levely. "One of the few who knew him as William Turner. Everyone else called him Bootstrap, Bootstrap Bill."

Will obviously seethed. "My father was a merchant sailor, good honest tradesman."

"Your father was a pirate and a scallywag!" Jack insisted, spinning the wheel to hit Will in the abdomen with the sail frame and dangle him over the side of the boat in open waters.

"Now listen." He said simply, starting to pace the deck across from where Will was dangling. "Your father was a pirate, and he was a bloody good one at that. You have pirate in your blood, boy. And you better start believing it."

He swung the wheel around and dropped Will back on the deck, holding his sword out at Will's throat. "So… can you sail under the orders of a pirate, or can you not?"

Will didn't answer for a moment, but when Jack lowered his sword and offered Will the hilt, Will took it.


	5. Chapter Four

Almyra sat in the boat as they rowed back to _the Black Pearl_ , holding onto Elizabeth Swann with a single hand on her arm, and though it wasn't painfully tight, it was enough to keep her from trying anything stupid. She wondered if she could communicate with Elizabeth without the others noticing, and she knew how to keep her idiotic crewmates understanding, but she wasn't sure if Elizabeth would be able to understand it.

Almyra started to draw the shapes of letters on the inside of Elizabeth's arm to spell out words. _I N-E-E-D Y-O-U-R H-E-L-P._

Elizabeth looked at her in surprise, but was smart enough to reach her hand over and do the same to the back of Almyra's hand, though the female pirate had to focus as hard as she could to feel the drawn reply. _H-O-W A-M I S-U-P-P-O-S-E-D T-O T-R-U-S-T Y-O-U_?

Almyra closed your eyes. _Y-O-U S-H-O-U-L-D-N-T. B-U-T W-E J-U-S-T N-E-E-D Y-O-U-R N-E-C-K-L-A-C-E._

 _W-H-Y?_

 _I-T-S A L-O-N-G S-T-O-R-Y_. Almyra admitted, her blue-green eyes softer than any other time that she'd looked at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth finally realized that, for whatever reason this woman was a pirate, she hadn't been one her entire life. She was intelligent, beautiful, and apparently kind, at least compared to those around her. She wondered how the woman came to join such an awful crew of wretched outlaws.

She relaxed slightly, or at least resigned herself to be less hostile to the only other woman for a moment. _B-U-T Y-O-U W-I-L-L H-E-L-P M-E?_

Almyra nodded, just barely, before looking up at a loud call of, "Al! The captain said no prisoners."

"She wishes to speak with Barbossa." Almyra replied, keeping her gaze directed downward before she looked up at the large, dark-skinned man with no trace of fear, only disdain toward her crewmate. "She invoked the right of parley."

The pirate grumbled to himself for a moment before motioning for Almyra to bring Elizabeth forward.

Almyra did as instructed, pushing Elizabeth forward to where she would meet Barbossa.

"I'm here to nego—"

The dark-skinned pirate swung a hand across her face. "You will only speak when spoken to!"

Barbossa grabbed the man's arm before he slapped the Governor's daughter again. "And you'll not lay a hand against anyone under the protection of parley."

"State ye terms." Barbossa encourages and Elizabeth hesitated for only a second.

"The immediate cessation of hostilities against Port Royal." She said clearly, sounding braver than she was sure to have felt.

The pirates glanced at each other again and Almyra had to fight not to pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration over their idiocy.

"There were many long words in that statement. We're but simple pirates," Barbossa started with a laugh, "you're going to have to be a little more concise."

"I want you to leave," Elizabeth rephrased, "and never come back."

"I'm disinclined to acquiesce your request," Barbossa said simply.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Means no," Barbossa explained.

Almyra only watched, raising a light eyebrow slightly. She needed Jack to hurry and get Bootstrap's son, or he would lose the leverage he had against the unbeknownst pirate.

Barbossa laughed and Elizabeth arched her own eyebrow, holding her hand over the side of the boat. "Then I suppose I'll just drop this."

"No!" Barbossa said quickly, the entire boat lurching forward, including Almyra. They couldn't lose that medallion.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, almost smirking.

He turned to look at Elizabeth. "What's your name, girl?"

"Elizabeth," she hesitated a short moment before she came up with a last name that wasn't really hers. "Turner. I'm a maid in the governor's household."

Almyra closed her eyes and tried desperately not to sigh as the rest of the crew stared at one another. Apparently, she really was the only one onboard that Bootstrap had told that his child was a boy like she had suspected—besides Jack when he had been there. Almyra and Bootstrap had been the only ones that didn't participate in the mutiny against Jack, but Bootstrap had been braver than Almyra. He spoke out against Barbossa, and it ended in a one-way trip to the bottom of the ocean. She'd kept her head down ever since, but she always hated herself for it. She was a coward, and she didn't know how to recover from that fact. She hated that she couldn't make herself change.

"Miss Turner," Barbossa said with a strangely growing smile.

Elizabeth stood firm in her stance, the medallion clutched in her hand.

"Pull the anchors," Barbossa called, "and turn the ship starboard. We're leaving Port Royal."

"What about me?" Elizabeth demanded.

"You made no claim to be let go as part of your deal," Barbossa said simply.

"But I declared parley!"

"As you are not a member of the Brethren Court of Pirates, parley does not apply to you. Welcome to the crew of _the Black Pearl_ , Miss Turner."


	6. Chapter Five

Jack docked the stolen ship, _the Interceptor_ , in the bay of Tortuga. He stepped off the boat, assuming Will would follow, but not upset if he didn't.

"What is this place?" Will asked, frowning slightly as he stepped onto the dock behind Jack.

"Tortuga," Jack said simply. "The best place in the Caribbean to find a pirate's crew to sail alongside."

"Jack," a redhead in an even redder dress said sharply as he walked up to her.

"Scarlett," he said, and she promptly slapped him across the face.

His head was snapped around to face the other direction, and he frowned in confusion. "I'm not sure I deserved that."

Another woman walked up to him, a blonde woman in a bright yellow dress and a very unhappy expression on her face.

"Giselle," Jack greeted with another smile.

"Who was she?" The blonde demanded.

"What?" Jack asked, and he was suddenly slapped a second time.

Will was obviously enjoying watching the pirate get slapped silly.

"I may have deserved that," Jack commented, shaking his head slightly before he continued walking on as though nothing had happened. Well, except for the lovely red handprint left on his tanned cheek.

* * *

Jack stepped up to a pigpen after it had gotten dark, carrying a bucket filled with water, and Will right beside him with a matching pail. He turned his dark eyes on the figure in the pen, snoring beside the hogs.

Jack tossed water onto the filthy gray haired man in the pen, who shot to a sitting position, cursing everyone but his mother and calling Jack anything but a gentleman.

The gray haired man looked up again and blinked, realizing who had tossed the water on him. "Mother's love, Jack. Don't you know it's bad luck to wake a man while he's sleeping?"

"Mister Gibbs," Jack said in greeting. "Fortunately I know how to counter it. The man who did the waking buys the man who was asleep a drink, while the man who was asleep listens to a proposition from the man who did the waking."

Gibbs looked confused for a moment before standing with a nod. "Aye, that'd about do it."

Will tossed the last bucket of water on Gibbs.

"Blast, I'm already awake!" He complained.

"That was for the smell," Will explained simply.

Gibbs then just shrugged. He had no argument for that.

* * *

The tavern was full of people, crowded, laughing, shouting. It was dim and full of smoke, sputtering candles on stands littered throughout the cramped space.

"Keep a sharp eye." Jack ordered Will, patting him on the shoulder as he slipped to a more private table in the back with Gibbs.

"What's this about, Jack?" Gibbs asked, taking a swing from his mug.

Jack leaned forward on the table. "I'm going after _the Pearl_."

Gibbs looked at him in shock. "Say again?"

"I'm going after _the Black Pearl_ ," Jack repeated as he leaned back with a smirk. "I know where it's gonna be, and I'm gonna take it."

Gibbs choked on the alcohol in his large mug. "That's a fool's errand, Jack."

Jack smiled slightly. "Not if the fool's got something Barbossa wants. Something Barbossa needs."

"And you've got that, have you?"

Jack smirked again. "It's just a matter of leverage."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

Jack nodded subtly in the direction of Will.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow again in confusion.

Jack grumbled incoherently and nodded toward him again, this time more dramatically. He swung his head around in a circle, stopping the motion in a direction pointed at Will. He finally gave up and nodded quickly in the direction of the blacksmith-turned-pirate.

"The kid?" Gibbs asked, sounding disbelieving.

"That boy is the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner—his only child." Jack explained with a smirk.

Gibbs's expression suddenly grew a smile of his own. "I see…"

Jack lifted his own mug, tipping his hat slightly. "Take what you can—"

"—Give nothin' back," Gibbs finished, and the two pirates clinked their mugs together.

* * *

The next morning, Gibbs had assembled a crew to help Jack and Will in their mad excursion to go after the Black Pearl, but not necessarily for the same reasons.

Jack looked over the crew, examining each pirate.

"Feast your eyes, cap'n. All of them good sea faring men, faithful hands before the mast, each man worth his salt," Gibbs explained, "and crazy to boot."

"And how do we know that?" Will asked, frowning.

Jack stepped up to one of the pirates. "Sailor—"

"Cotton, sir," Gibbs introduced.

"Mister Cotton," Jack started, "do you have the capacity to sail into hellish waters and even, possibly, certain death?"

Cotton said nothing.

"Mister Cotton!" Jack snapped for an answer.

"He's a mute, Captain," Gibbs explained, "poor devil had his tongue cut out. He trained the parrot to speak for him. None of us have quite figured out how, though."

Jack made a few strange motions with his tongue before stepping up again. "Mister Cotton's… parrot. Same question."

The parrot squawked. "Wind in your sails. Wind in your sails."

Jack looked at Gibbs.

"Mostly we figure that means yes," Gibbs answered with a small shrug.

"Well of course it does!" Jack turned to Will and nodded. "Satisfied?"

"Well, you've proven they're mad," Will agreed.

"And what's the benefit for us?!" A female voice snapped from further down the line.

Jack hesitated before walking down the line of sailors, pausing in front of one who wore a large hat that covered their face. He pulled the hat off, and a cascade of dark hair tumbled down the back of the obviously female pirate.

"Ana Maria" Jack greeted happily, and she slapped him across the face.

Her slap almost knocked him off his feet, and Will steadied him. "I suppose you didn't deserve that one either?"

"No, that one I deserved," Jack mumbled before standing up straight again.

"You stole my boat!" Ana Maria accused sharply.

"Borrowed," Jack corrected, "borrowed without permission, but with every intention of bringing it back."

"But you didn't!"

"You'll get a new one," Will offered, and Jack nodded enthusiastically.

"A better one," Will continued, and jack kept nodding until Will pointed to _the_ _Interceptor_ and said, "that one."

"What one? That one?!" Jack demanded, whirling on Will. Jack turned back around a moment later and looked at Ana Maria again. "That one. Now who's with me?"

"Aye!" The lot of them yelled, except for Cotton, whose parrot squawked in affirmative.

"No, no," Gibbs argued. "It's frightful bad luck to bring a woman aboard."

"It'd be far worse not to have her," Jack pointed out. "There's only one woman I'd rather sail with, and right now that isn't an option."


	7. Chapter Six

Almyra walked into the cabin of _the Pearl_ where Elizabeth was being held, away from the crewmates. She was holding a dress of deep red, sighing as she closed the door behind her.

"Miss Turner," the pirate called softly, careful not to reveal the true identity of the young woman because she knew it would get her killed. "It's only me."

Elizabeth appeared a moment later, not smiling at Almyra, but looking relieved that it was her and not one of the hellish men aboard. "What is it?"

"Captain Barbossa requests that you dine with him tonight." She held out the red dress. "And that you wear this."

Elizabeth straightened in her stance. "Well you can tell Captain Barbossa that I am disinclined to acquiesce to his request."

"I was afraid of that," Almyra said with a sigh. "He said if you didn't accept, we would both be dining with the crew, naked."

Elizabeth snatched the dress.

Almyra breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

The pirate turned around do Elizabeth could change, facing the door.

"How did you end up with this crew, Almyra?" Elizabeth asked as she changed. "You don't seem like the usual kind of pirate."

"The usual kind?" Almyra asked with a slight smile and a raised eyebrow. "You mean a brash bunch of bloodthirsty and lust-filled men with no care for personal hygiene?"

Elizabeth hesitated. That was exactly what she meant.

"My mother died when I was a toddler, and my father was a merchant sailor," Almyra explained. "He worked for the East India Trading Company when it was first starting out. He was a good man. When he realized that part of his job would be carting slaves, he couldn't stand by and take people to their deaths for money, no matter how much money it was. He freed the slaves aboard his ship and more, and burned half of a fleet—including his own ship—until there was nothing left but hulls at the bottom of the sea."

She shook her head. "I was a teenager when it happened, when my father was branded a pirate for saving countless lives from slavery. That was where I met Jack Sparrow as well. He and my father were very much alike at the time, though Jack was probably too young to be as skilled a sailor as he was. Jack freed the slaves on his ship as well, with my father's help, and the East India Trading Company burned Jack's ship to ashes.

"Jack… well, let's just say when he secured _the Pearl_ , my father was his first mate, his most trusted confidant, and I was alongside them the entire time. Eventually my father's past caught up with him, and the East India Trading Company didn't take kindly to his sabotage." She ran her hand down the blackened hull of _the Pearl_ , looking at her fingers almost curiously when they didn't come away covered in soot. "They killed him, and Jack saved my life before they could end my life before my father's eyes. After that, I swore that the only men I would take orders from were Jack and God. Looks like I've failed on both of those counts."

Elizabeth was looking at her in shock, fully clothed in the deep red dress given by Barbossa. "Your father knew Jack Sparrow, and he saved your life? And _the Black Pearl_ belonged to him?"

"A long time ago, yes. Almost ten years since Jack was captain of _the Pearl_."

Almyra looked at Elizabeth, and the governor's daughter was shocked to see that there was no sign of tears in the pirate's eyes. Even for the most hardened person, talking about something related to the death of a parent, of someone you loved, was enough to get emotional.

Elizabeth knew then something was off with this ship, and the crew, and whatever it was affected all of the crew members, even the only good one onboard.

"C'mon," Almyra said softly, "Barbossa's waiting, and he isn't a patient man."

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Almyra," Elizabeth said softly. "I'm sure it wasn't easy."

Almyra didn't acknowledge that, but changed the subject. "And Miss _Turner_ , feel free to call me Al."

Almyra led Elizabeth into the captain's quarters of the black ship. She remembered what they looked like when Jack was captain, and despite the dark shade of everything, when Jack was captain, everything was more lively, even before he had gone mad as he was now. Everything aboard _the Black Pearl_ was dead now—the crew, the sea around them, and the love for the sea. None of them could feel, and none of them could care. It made life aboard _the Pearl_ all but miserable.

"Thank you, Al," Barbossa said with a dirty-toothed, almost sarcastic smile. "I knew I was right by making you my first mate."

Almyra didn't speak, just looked reassuringly at Elizabeth before she headed toward the door again.

"Miss James," Barbossa called, "why don't you eat with us?"

She knew she couldn't turn him down, and she knew, despite her involvement with the crew and her damned soul, that Elizabeth would probably feel better with her there. The only reason she was even his first mate was because he wanted to keep a close eye on her. He remembered her unwavering loyalty to Jack, and he still didn't trust it, even after ten years.

Almyra nodded. "Of course, Captain Barbossa."

She moved back toward the table and slid into a chair before Barbossa would sit himself.

Elizabeth ate politely, using her utensils and chewing delicately.

Almyra didn't touch the food. There was no point in it. She couldn't taste it if she wanted to.

"There is no need to stand on ceremony, Miss Turner," Barbossa assured. "You must be hungry."

Elizabeth practically threw down the eating utensils and picked up the leg of the small pig, tearing into it with her teeth.

Barbossa picked up a slice of bread and handed it to the "maid", and she took it from his hands quickly, biting into it without hesitation.

The Captain then poured her a goblet of wine. "Try the wine."

"And the apples, one of those next," Barbossa suggested as he picked up a ripe, beautiful green apple.

Elizabeth froze. "It's poisoned." She shoved her plate away and looked accusingly at Almyra for a moment, sliding a knife into the palm of her hand.

Barbossa laughed, and Elizabeth faced him. "Oh, there would be no sense in killing you, Miss Turner."

"Then let me go," she argued. "You have your trinket, I'm of no further value to you." She looked between the captain and the first mate. "Why aren't you two eating?"

"Would if we could," Barbossa answered. He pulled out the medallion, letting the piece of gold dangle from his fingers by the string tied to it. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's a pirate medallion," Elizabeth answered almost cautiously.

"It's a piece of treasure from the Isla de Muerta. Aztec gold."

Elizabeth shrugged, but Almyra could see intrigue hiding under her mask of nonchalance.

"Ah, so you don't know as much as you pretend," Barbossa said almost tauntingly. "One of eight hundred and eighty-two pieces they delivered in a gold chest to Cortes himself. Blood money paid to stem the slaughter that he reaped upon the people with his armies. But Cortes's greed was great."

"Naturally, he didn't stop," Almyra muttered, shaking her head slightly.

Elizabeth had been fascinated by the story, as Almyra had suspected, but the governor's daughter feigned a dismissive attitude. "I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore, Captain Barbossa."

"Aye," Barbossa agreed sharply. "That's exactly what we thought when we first heard the tale. Buried on the island of the dead that cannot be found, except by those who know where it is. But find it we did, and there be the chest. Inside be the gold, and we took it all. We spent it, we traded it, frittered it away for drink and food and pleasant company. But the more we gave it away, the more we can to realize the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all of the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust." Barbossa stood up straighter. "We were a cursed crew, Miss Turner. Compelled by greed we were, but now we are _consumed_ by it."

Almyra sat up a little straighter, like the whole topic was beyond uncomfortable.

Elizabeth subtly slid a knife off the table and hid it in the skirts of her dress.

"There is but one way to remove the curse. All of the scattered pieces of the treasure must be returned, in full, and the blood repaid. Thanks to you, we have the final piece." He held up the medallion.

"And the blood to be repaid?" Elizabeth asked with slight hesitation.

"That's why there'd be no sense in killin' ya. Yet."

Barbossa kicked and apple off the floor and caught the ripe fruit in his hand. "Apple?"

Elizabeth stared at him in horror, and then slowly reached for the apple. She then leapt from her chair to run around Barbossa.

He caught her, and after a small struggle, he pushed her away, but not until after she buried a knife in his chest.

The undead captain only sighed as though he were exasperated and pulled the knife free from his chest with little effort. Crimson blood stained the blade, but was left nowhere else.

"I'm curious," Barbossa commented, "after killing me, what is it you were planning on doing next?"

Elizabeth backed toward the door, and burst free, starting to scramble onto the deck. She froze at the sight of the crew. Each man that was once a man in the sunlight was revealed as a moving skeleton in the light of the moon, working aboard the deck of _the_ _Black Pearl_. She turned away, fighting not to scream.

Barbossa, who was waiting just inside the doorway and away from the moonlight with Almyra just behind him, grabbed Elizabeth roughly by the shoulders and turned her back to face the undead crew.

"Look!" The captain ordered, "look! The moonlight shows us for what we truly are. We are not among the living so we cannot die, but neither are we dead. We have all the desires of the living, but cannot satisfy them. Too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it! Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died! I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea." He reached toward Elizabeth as she backed away from the Captain, and as his hand reached the moonlight, it turned skeletal. "Nor the warmth of a woman's flesh."

He stepped into the moonlight, his body turning skeletal and his clothes turning to rags. "You best start believin' in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one."


	8. Chapter Seven

Almyra was still standing in the captain's quarters as Elizabeth ran back inside and huddled in a corner.

Barbossa slammed the doors closed.

Almyra cautiously inched toward Elizabeth, who almost jumped out of her skin.

"You!" She said accusingly and fearfully. "You're one of them, too! A pirate that was damned for their greed."

"I know," the young pirate woman said gently. "But I never wanted any of this."

She stepped forward, into the silver moonlight that streamed in through the windows. Her skin disappeared, showing nothing but pale bone and tattered clothes.

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she looked at the female pirate before her. Though she was still undead, it was different than every one of the men in the crew. Her bones were delicate as any woman's most likely would be, but her bones were a lighter white, as if they were cleaner, and her clothes were even in better shape than the others. Despite the greed she was cursed by, she was cleaner inside and out. It was strange. Even as an undead monster she was beautiful, and if she could be so kind without being able to feel any true emotion, Elizabeth wanted her to have the chance to be the person she wanted to be.

Almyra stepped back out of the light. "Now you see what I am as well, but there is nothing I want more to be rid of this curse. I want to be able to feel again." She knelt cautiously in front of Elizabeth. "The worst torture of all is remembering what it was like to feel, to _love_ , but no longer be able to feel anything toward anyone. Even a memory."

Almyra's blue-green eyes turned downward for a moment before she looked back up and met the dark eyes of the governor's daughter. "I know you aren't the one we need for this, Elizabeth, but I won't tell them that. I won't let them kill you because you aren't, but we still need that medallion. I want to go back to the man I once loved and feel something when he holds me."

Elizabeth didn't know what to say. She didn't even have a guess at who the man could be, but she was sure it wasn't anyone aboard this ghastly ship.

Almyra looked down at her hands, the skin of her palms calloused and rough with her a ring on each hand.

"Who was the man, Al?" Elizabeth asked softly, suddenly no longer afraid of what the woman was. "Who is the man you fell in love with so long ago?"

Almyra looked up with a sad smile. "He's not the same man now that he was. The past was not kind to him after we lost each other. The man I loved was Captain Jack Sparrow."


	9. Chapter Eight

The storm was growing stronger, but Jack couldn't be bothered by the damage that was possibly being taken to _the Interceptor_. He steered the ship in the direction his compass pointed him, the strange thing that didn't point north, but pointed to what you desired most. He desired two things, and two things only—Almyra, and to use the single shot in his pistol. He was lucky, though. The way to quench both of those desires was in the same place, on Isla de Muerta.

"We'd best drop canvas, sir!" Gibbs suggested over the strong winds.

"She can hold a bit longer!" Jack called back, smiling as the wind picked up speed.

"What's in your head that's got you in such a good mood, Captain?" Gibbs called to him through the storm, every last sailor aboard drenched to the bone from the storm and the unruly waves that crashed onto the deck.

Jack looked at his first mate with a grin. "We're catching up."

The storm didn't slow, and Will was wondering what mad game Jack was playing. "How are we supposed to find and island that no one can find, with a compass that doesn't work?"

"Aye, the compass doesn't point north," Gibbs agreed, "but we aren't trying to find north, are we?"

* * *

The storm had calmed as _the Interceptor_ crept into the eerily calm waters around the Isla de Muerta, the remains of wrecked ship clear to see through the blue, salty liquid. Before them, proud and dangerous, was _the Black Pearl_ , her black sails filled with holes, as if she were as undead as the crew onboard.

"Puts a chill in the bones, how many honest sailors have been brought down by these waters," Gibbs said quietly, the only person speaking as _the Interceptor_ crept toward the island and everyone went to work again.

The crew was strangely, almost deathly silent they went back to their business as the ship floated toward shore.

"Where did Jack get that compass?" Will asked Gibbs as they sat lower on the deck, scrubbing the wood panels almost nonchalantly.

"Not much is known about Jack Sparrow before he showed up in Tortuga with a mind to go after the treasure of Isla de Muerta," Gibbs admitted. "That was before I met him, back when he was captain of _the Black Pearl_."

Will looked up in shock. "He failed to mention that."

"He's learned then," Gibbs stated, his voice lowering. "Plays things more closely to vest. See, Jack hired himself a crew to go after the treasure. Three days out when the first mate walks up to him and says everything's in equal share, so Jack gives up the bearings. That night there was a mutiny. They marooned Jack on an island and left him to die, but not before he went mad with the heat."

"So that's the reason for all of the…" Will trailed off and made a strange mocking of Jack's movements.

"Reason's got nothing to do with it," Gibbs said simply, crouching on the deck. "Now, Will, when a pirate's marooned, he's given a pistol with a single shot, only one. Well, that won't do you much good hunting or to be rescued, but after a few weeks of a starving belly and thirst, that pistol starts to look _real_ friendly. But, Jack, he escaped that island, and he still has that single shot. Oh, but he won't use it, save on one man—his mutinous quartermaster."

"Barbossa," Will realized in shock. "How did Jack get off the island?"

"Well, he waded out into the water for three days and three nights, and when all manner of sea creatures became acclimated to his presence, he roped himself a couple sea turtles, strapped them together, and made a raft."

"Sea turtles?" Will asked in disbelief. "What did he use for rope?"

Gibbs hesitated, like he'd never thought of asking that question himself.

"Human hair," Jack answered suddenly, making Gibbs and Will jump. "From my back."

Will didn't have an answer for that before Jack spoke again, this time to the whole crew. "Let go the anchor! Young Mister Turner and I are to go ashore."


	10. Chapter Nine

Elizabeth was still in the captain's quarters, waiting nervously as she felt _the Pearl_ slow and stop near the island of death as bright sunlight streamed in the windows.

The door opened, and Pintel and Ragetti were standing there, looking at the governor's daughter tucked into a tiny windowsill.

"Time to go, poppet," Pintel said.

Almyra moved from her elusive hiding place in the corner to gather Elizabeth herself, sending the men a sharp glance with her blue-green eyes.

They two undead men almost cowered.

Almyra led Elizabeth onto the deck, where some of the men, Pintel and Ragetti still included, bound Elizabeth's hands. Afterward, Barbossa brushed back her hair and tied the Aztec gold medallion around her neck again.

Then they loaded the boats.

* * *

They reached the far interior of the cave, dumping the treasures that they had gathered over the ten years to add to the treasure, Almyra gently tugging Elizabeth in behind her as she strode inside, anxious to feel again, though she knew Elizabeth wasn't the one they needed.

Elizabeth froze at the sight of what looked like an altar.

"C'mon," Almyra told the young woman softly. "It's not what it looks like."

Almyra stood on the pile of treasure where the chest of Cortez's cursed gold rested, opposite Barbossa so Elizabeth stood between them as the undead captain almost preached.

"Gentlemen, lady," Barbossa crooned, "the time has come! Our salvation is nigh!"

There were shouts from the barbaric men of the crew.

"Our torment is near an end!"

More cheering.

Almyra scanned the crowd almost dismissively, like she was too proud to cheer for what she wanted so badly, but that wasn't the case at all. She was searching for Jack and the boy he promised, the one that would take her curse away.

She spotted Jack in the back, crouching beneath stalactites that gave the cave gnashing teeth. There was someone beside him—a handsome, dark haired man that looked like he was about Elizabeth's age, and looked even more like he was Bootstrap Bill brought back from the dead.

Almyra cracked a smile in the middle of Barbossa's continued speech, looking as though she were playing along, but the smile wasn't for them. It was in relief. Jack had done it.

"For ten years we've been tested and tried," Barbossa continued, waving a hand over the crowd of pirates. "And each member has proven their salt a hundred times over—"

More loud cheering.

"—and a hundred times again!"

"Suffered, I have!" Ragetti cried in agreement.

That time Almyra couldn't help but cheer with them.

"Punished we were," Barbossa continued, "the lot of us! Disproportionate to our crimes!"

Every pirate nodded in agreement, including Almyra.

"Here it is!" Barbossa and Almyra each took a corner of the chest and shoved the cement lid off. "The cursed treasure of Cortez himself!"

Almyra noticed Jack and who had to have been Will looking on with intrigue. She made no sign to have noticed.

"Every last piece of the treasure we have returned, save for this!" Barbossa pointed to the medallion around Elizabeth's neck.

Almyra saw Jack and Will disappear, and almost felt nervous. She was sure that if she could have, she would've been panicking.

"Who among us has paid the blood sacrifice to the heathen gods?" Barbossa asked rhetorically, but that didn't stop the pirates from answering in a unruly, almost chaotic cry of "we have."

"And whose blood must yet be paid?"

The next cry from the pirates was almost simultaneous. "Hers!"

"You know the first thing I'm gonna do after the curse is lifted?" Barbossa called, his voice quieting as he turned to Elizabeth. "Eat a whole bushel of apples."

She looked like she was about to panic when Barbossa pulled a small blade and sliced Elizabeth's palm, across meat of her thumb to the opposite side beneath her pinkie.

"That was it?" Elizabeth asked, sounding relieved and terrified at the same time.

"Waste not." Barbossa pressed the medallion into her palm until it had a thick coating of blood on it, and turned her hand upside down.

They dropped it together.

It hit the other coins and almost bounced.

Barbossa stepped forward, closing his eyes and waiting to feel again, as did the other men. Nothing changed.

"I don't feel no different," Ragetti stated after a moment.

"How do we tell?" Pintel asked.

Barbossa rolled his eyes, and pulled his flintlock. He shot Pintel in the chest.

"You're not dead!" Another man complained.

"He shot me!" Pintel said after a moment of realization.

"The curse is still upon us!"

With that statement, things almost became chaotic.

Barbossa whirled on Elizabeth. "You, maid! What always your father's name? Was your father William Turner?"

Elizabeth looked at him with a near defiant smirk. "No."

"Where is his child? The child that sailed here from England eight years ago? The child in whose veins flows the blood of William Turner?"

Elizabeth said nothing.

Barbossa swung the back of his hand across her face so hard Elizabeth tumbled down the mountain of riches, unconscious.

"You two!" One of the pirates accused, looking to Ragetti and Pintel. "You brought us the wrong person!"

Almyra paid no more attention to the arguing band of pirates. She noticed something much more important. The young man she had assumed to be Will Turner poked his head out of the water and pressed a hand against Elizabeth's mouth, waking her so they could escape. She picked up the medallion before they slipped off.

Her attention was taken again when one of the damned suggested, "I say we cut her throat, and spill all her blood, just in case."

"What good would it do?" Almyra called sharply. "She isn't the one we need, you idiots. The Captain asked her who her father was, and it wasn't Bootstrap. We don't need her alive, but she escaped with the medallion!"

"Get it back!" Barbossa ordered. "Find the medallion!"

The pirates scattered, including Almyra, but she wanted to find Jack, to understand what happened and what went wrong.

Little did she know was that Jack would, quite literally, stumble into the entire undead crew.

Almyra almost dropped her sword in shock.

"You!" Ragetti said in shock when he spotted the former captain of the Black Pearl stumbling toward them with an oar in his hands.

"You're supposed to be dead!" Pintel complained.

"Am I not?" Jack asked, almost as though he were confused. He looked down at his clothes and his skin.

Almyra rolled her eyes. He was most certainly concussed.

Jack shrugged and turned around like he was going to walk the other direction before he was cut off by swords and pistols.

He frowned and turned to walk the other direction, but more weapons cut off his exit.

"Pa-lu-li," Jack tried when Pintel stuck a gun in his face. "Pa-lu-la-li-lu. Party, parsley, partner… partner…"

Ragetti seemed to realize what he was going for and suggested it for him. "Parlay?"

"That's the one!" Jack said happily, pointing to the one-eyed pirate. "Parlay! Parlay!"

"Parlay!" Pintel demanded, looking ready to shoot his best friend. "Damn to the depths whatever madmen thought of parlay!"

Jack pushed the flintlock down from his face and looked at Pintel. "That would be the French."

* * *

Barbossa walked forward to where Jack stood in the center of the large circle of his former crew, Almyra beside him to "restrain" the pirate of he tried anything.

Jack leaned on an oar, smirking at the look of confusion on his former first mate's face.

"How the blazes did you get off that island?" Barbossa asked in shock.

"When you marooned me in that godforsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate," Jack informed him hatefully. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

Almyra rolled her eyes.

"What's the matter, Myra?" Jack teased. "Didn't you miss me?"

One of the other pirates sniggered. "Yes, Myra, didn't you miss the ol' captain?"

Almyra whirled, her long, dark blonde braid spinning so quickly it almost took out Jack's eye, and she punched the taunting pirate in the nose so hard it knocked him backward.

"Don't call me Myra," the undead pirate woman snarled.

Barbossa only raised an eyebrow, ignoring most of the display as he turned back to Jack. "Ah, well, I won't be making that mistake again. Gents—lady—you all remember Cap'n Jack Sparrow." He looked at each circling pirate. "Kill him."

"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?" Jack asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow and not flinching as dozens of flintlocks were raised to his head.

Barbossa froze.

"Hold your fire!" He barked as he turned back toward Jack. "You know whose blood we need?"

Jack's smirk only grew. "I know whose blood you need."


	11. Chapter Ten

"So you expect to leave standing on a beach with nothing but a name, and your word it's the one I need while I watch you sail away on my ship?" Barbossa asked in something like disbelief after hearing Jack's proposition.

Almyra was standing in the corner, the only third party allowed by Barbossa to be in the quarters during their bickering.

"No," Jack said with something almost like a scoff. "I expect to leave you standing on some beach with no name at all, watching me sail away on _my_ ship, and I'll shout the name back to you. Savvy?"

Almyra rolled her eyes again, shaking her head slightly. It may not have been the same Jack she once loved, but it wasn't as far off as she had suspected. He was still a smartass.

"But that still leaves us with the problem of me standing on some beach with naught but a name, and your word it's the one I need."

"Of the two of us, I am the only one who hasn't committed mutiny," Jack pointed out. "Therefore _my_ word is the one we'll be trusting." He picked up an apple and kicked his feet up on the table. "Though, I'm sure Myra can corroborate my word. Although, I should be thanking you, because—in fact—if you hadn't betrayed me and left me to die, I would have an equal share in that curse, same as you."

Jack took a large bite of his ripe green apple, and spoke while it was still full. "Funny little world, isn't it?"

Barbossa nodded slightly, a brittle smile lacing his expression.

Almyra bit the inside of her cheek and crossed her arms to keep from socking the smirk off of Jack's face. She supposed he didn't realize that he was taunting her as well as taunting Barbossa.

"Captain," a large, dark-skinned sailor said as he walked into the room with the captain, former captain, and first mate. "We're coming up on _the Interceptor_."

The monkey leapt across the table, making Jack jump, before Barbossa, Jack, and Almyra each left the office-like room.

Barbossa climbed the stairs beside the captain's quarters and extended his telescope to look out at the ship.

Almyra almost chuckled when Jack hopped in his line of sight.

"I'm having a thought here, Barbossa," Jack told him before the current captain lowered his telescope. "Why don't we run up a flag of truce, and I scurry over to _the Interceptor_ to negotiate the return of your medallion, what say you to that?"

"See, Jack," Barbossa said with almost mock tenderness. "That's the attitude that lost you _the Pearl_ in the first place. People are easy to search when they're dead."

Jack's dark eyes narrowed, and Almyra noticed a small shift in his expression that showed just how badly he wanted to use the shot in that pistol.

"Miss James," Barbossa said to Almyra. "Would you be so kind to show our guest to the brig?"

Almyra took a deep breath before grabbing Jack's arm and tugging him below deck.

* * *

Almyra pushed Jack into the cell, closing the iron barred door behind him. She felt no remorse—she couldn't feel any.

"Well, my little siren," Jack said with a frown. "This is an unexpected turn of events. And there appears to be a leak."

"Is it?" She asked coldly, ignoring his comment about the leak in the boat. "You let the boy we need get away with Elizabeth _and_ the medallion, Jack. Forgive me if I'm not falling into your arms."

"I didn't think he'd run away that fast, love." Jack insisted, reaching slowly for her. "And he wasn't going to stay gone long, after I drop that mutineering quartermaster off on that island I was going to come and bring young William back to the island break your curse." He promised.

Her jaw tightened and untightened as she tried to work through what Jack had said. "And how exactly do you plan to do that now?" She asked, crossing her arms before stepping towards Jack again.

"Well… I… haven't quite thought that far yet."

Almyra growled exasperatedly and punched the metal bars so hard that her knuckles split, but she didn't even flinch. "Dammit, Jack! You know how important this is to me—to _you_ —and you haven't thought ahead far enough to know how to get to the Turner boy?"

"Not sure I deserved that sort of reaction." He yelped as he flinched back quickly in shock at her outburst.

"Really?" She asked dryly. "You just damned me to live this wretched half-life for eternity and you've lost your only chance at revenge, and you don't think I deserved to hit your cell?"

Jack froze for a second, looking like he was truly thinking over the question. "Not quite? I'll fix it! I'll fix it!" He swore, reaching slowly back through the bars to pat her arm.

"How Jack? Have you come up with a plan in the last minute? Some magical way to let me feel again?"

"No…But I'm getting there." He assured too brightly for her deep frown. "But I promised," he reminded with a grin as he leaned against the bars towards her. "And Captain Jack Sparrow keeps his word. Savvy?"

Almyra sighed, closing her eyes. "I hope so, Jack. For all our sake."

Both pirates jumped when they heard cannonfire.

Almyra started for the stairs, but Jack caught her arm through the bars.

"No," he said quickly. "Myra, wait. Let the fighting go on up there, and when the time is right, we can take the medallion."

"If you haven't noticed, Jack, you're stuck in a cell."

"Which you have the keys to." Jack tapped on the metal. "Come on, love. We can do this together."

Almyra sighed and moved to unlock the door before a cannonball flew through the side of the ship, and both of them jumped out of the way.

" _Stop blowing holes in my ship!_ " Jack yelled at _the Interceptor._

Another shot from a cannon sent eating utensils through the newly blasted hole.

The impact of the fork in her shoulder knocked Almyra back, and she looked down at the pronged utensil almost like it had offended her.

Jack looked over at her, his dark eyes wide before he noticed that the blast had knocked out the lock on his cell.

He slipped out and inched toward Almyra almost cautiously as she jerked the fork from her upper arm, but strangely didn't bleed, despite the blood on the four prongs of the fork.

"So about my proposition, love—" Jack started.

Almyra held up a hand to silence him and pulled out her sword.

Jack was suddenly horrified she was going to stab him, but not because he would die. He was horrified at what that would do to her soul when she regained it.

But she didn't. The steady blade never flashed in his direction. "Let's get that medallion."

Jack smiled.


	12. Chapter Eleven

"Nothing?" Jack pressed as he stood next to Almyra, poking gently at her shoulder where the wound from the fork still hadn't bled a drop, even looking like it had already closed up with no sign she had even been hurt.

"Jack, if you don't stop poking me, I really will think about stabbing you."

"Just curious…" He pouted, but he pulled his hand back.

"If I remember correctly, you telling me you were curious is how we ended up together isn't it?" She asked with a faint upturn of her mouth without any real happiness or feeling behind it, no matter how much she wanted there to be.

Jack grinned and nodded excitedly. "I do believe so, but there's been a lot of rum since then, love."

She rolled her eyes and tried not to scoff at him, even without feeling affection for him anymore, Jack still had a way of managing to keep her close. Cursed as she was, he was horribly persistent and helplessly adorable when he wanted to be.

 _If only I could actually_ feel _that_. She thought bitterly, one of the only things she still could, that and anger the most common.

She shook out of the thoughts quickly, she could feel everything again. All they had to do was find Bootstrap's boy.

Almyra rushed with Jack up to the top deck, the two moving with surprising ease across the open space as the battle raged, but they were almost too late. The Interceptor was listing dangerously to the side, outgunned and outmanned as the crew of _the Pearl_ swarmed aboard the sinking ship.

"Well," Jack said slowly, looking at the ship. "This makes things remarkably more difficult, doesn't it, love?"

"Not really," she said with a smirk as she shoved another crew member from the Pearl off a rope hooked to the Interceptor. "Follow me."

Almyra swung across, landing with graceful ease.

Jack smiled. "What a woman." He snatched the rope from a swinging pirate and followed the female pirate across.

"Jack!" Gibbs called in shock.

Jack handed his flask back. "It's bloody empty."

Gibbs didn't have time to say anything else before Jack moved away, and he had to jump back into the fight himself.

He caught the wrist of one of the undead pirates as he swung a sword at Elizabeth. "That's not very nice."

Elizabeth then elbowed the pirate in the face, and he fell off _the Interceptor_.

He shoved Elizabeth out of the way of cannonfire. "Where's the medallion?"

Elizabeth looked at him with wide eyes, like she was shocked by a thought she didn't understand before she recovered and started swinging at him. "Wretch!"

Jack caught her arm with ease, noticing the bandage on her hand. He smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Ah, where's dear William?"

Elizabeth whirled to look where the named boy had disappeared to. "Will…" She got up and scrambled away.

"Monkey!" Jack called suddenly, rushing after Barbossa's undead pet that carried the medallion of Aztec gold.

Almyra spotted it the same time as Jack, and she broke free from the three pirates she was fighting.

"Go!" She ordered Jack, fending off any that tried to stop him.

Jack nodded quickly and set off across a fallen beam behind the monkey.

The former captain stopped at Barbossa's feet, where he held the medallion.

"Why thank ye, Jack," Barbossa said.

"You're welcome," Jack replied with a brittle smile.

"Not you. We named the monkey Jack."

Jack's dark eyes narrowed.

"Gents, lady, our hope is restored!"

There was cheering from the crew of _the Black Pearl_.

* * *

"If any of you so much as thinks the word parlay, I'll have your guts for garters," Pintel growled as he circled the group of restrained pirates.

Elizabeth shot from under the rope restraining the crew of the Interceptor just as the black powder charge reached the barrels of the same explosive material.

Every pirate that wasn't cursed flinched back away from the heat of the blast, though it wasn't close, and each one's eyes widened. Even Jack almost jumped backward.

Elizabeth froze, breathing heavily and breathing one name. "Will…"

The governor's daughter then rushed toward Barbossa, trying to beat him to no avail. "You gutless savage!"

"Welcome back, miss!" Barbossa said as he clamped her arms down next to her side. "You took advantage of our hospitality last time. It's only fair now you return the favor."

He shoved Elizabeth into the crowd of lustful pirates.

"Miss James," Barbossa then called.

Almyra stepped up cautiously.

"Gents," he called to the crew again. "Here's another one."

He pushed Almyra into the crowd.

Most of them knew better than to try anything, but that didn't stop many of the others as they tore at clothes on both women trying to fight free.

Jack lunged forward, struggling harshly to break the grip of the undead pirates holding onto him. They would not hurt his Myra, they wouldn't violate her like that.

"Barbossa!" A new male voice called.

Everyone froze and turned.

Elizabeth looked relieved. "Will!" She said in a shocked gasp.

Young William Turner stepped forward and aimed Jack's pistol at Barbossa. "She goes free."

Almyra took the distraction as a chance to free herself. She swung an elbow into the gut of one of the pirates holding her, stomped another, and was able to spin out of the grip of another, punching that one in the jaw. She knew it couldn't hurt them, but it worked to get them to let go of her. She then pulled Elizabeth from their arms with another kick to a gut of another vicious pirate.

Elizabeth found herself almost cowering behind the female pirate whose only emotion was anger.

The action had happened so quickly that Barbossa was still reacting to Will's threat. "What's in your head, boy?"

"She goes free," Will repeated, a dangerous look in his dark eyes.

"You've only got one shot, and we can't die."

"Please don't do anything stupid," Jack almost begged.

Will glanced around and hopped onto the ship's siding, pressing the pistol's short barrel to his jaw. "You can't, but I can."

Elizabeth almost lunged forward, and Almyra caught her.

"Like that," Jack grumbled.

Barbossa looked at him in thorough confusion. "Who are you?"

"No one!" Jack said quickly, sliding free from the grip of the pirates. "He's no one. Distant cousin of my aunt's nephew, twice removed. Lovely singing voice though." Jack's tone dropped. "Eunuch."

"My name is Will Turner," the boy called over Jack's rambling. "My father was Bootstrap Bill Turner. His blood runs in my veins."

Jack looked down and slipped away from Barbossa while the Captain was distracted.

"He's a spitting image of ol' Bootstrap Bill," Ragetti called, "come back to haunt us."

Jack looked completely done with the whole idea of this charade.

"On my word, do as I say, or I'll pull this trigger and be lost to Davy Jones's locker." Will didn't move the pistol from his jaw.

"Name ye terms, Mister Turner," Barbossa said simply.

"Elizabeth goes free!"

"Yes, we know that one. Anything else?"

Jack pointed to himself with a smile.

"And the crew!" Will said quickly.

Almyra looked back at Jack, watching his smile die as he continued to motion to himself, though slower.

Barbossa stepped forward to look at Will. "Agreed."

* * *

Elizabeth was shoved out onto the plank, swords pointed in her direction as the crew yelled at her.

"C'mon, poppet," Pintel yelled, "walk the plank."

She backed up slowly.

Almyra couldn't do anything to help her—she was being held in restraint by a few of the pirates so she couldn't try anything. She recognized the island they were near. It was the place that her measly life went from free to damned. It was the same island where they marooned Jack the first time.

Elizabeth stepped out to the edge, holding her dress up above her feet.

"Barbossa, you lying bastard!" Will snapped as he struggled free. "You swore she'd go free!"

"Don't dare impugn me honor, boy!" Barbossa snarled in reply. "I agreed she'd go free, but it was you who failed to specify when or where."

They gagged Will.

"But it does seem a shame to lose something so fine, doesn't it lads?" Barbossa asked the crew.

There were multiple noises of agreement.

Barbossa stepped forward. "So I'll be having that dress back before you go."

The men laughed, and Almyra was disgusted. It was one thing—however cruel—to maroon a woman, but it was another level of their vileness to steal her clothing before she was shoved off to die.

Nevertheless, Elizabeth stripped the dark red dress and tossed it back at Barbossa. "It goes with your black heart."

"Ooh, it's still warm," he said as he turned and tossed it toward the gathered crew.

Elizabeth inched forward, looking back at the deck.

"Too long!" A pirate complained, and then proceeded to stomp the end of the plank still onboard the ship.

Elizabeth let out a yelp and fell off the other end.

Jack was laughing with them, playing along, at least until they led him up to the plank next, still shackled.

"I'd really rather hoped we were passed all this," Jack said to Barbossa as he turned.

"Jack," Barbossa said, tossing an arm around his shoulder. "Jack, did you not notice? That be the same island we made you governor of on our last little trip."

Jack glanced at the island and turned back to him. "I did notice."

"Perhaps you'll be able to conjure up another miraculous escape," Barbossa suggested. "But I doubt it."

He pulled out a sword, and Jack backed up. "Off you go."

Jack glanced down at the sword tip before looking up again. "Last time you left me a pistol with one shot."

"By the powers, you're right. Where be Jack's pistol? Bring it forward."

"Seeing as there's two of us," Jack said, "a gentleman would give us a pair of pistols."

"It'll be one pistol as before," Barbossa informed, "and you can be the gentleman and shoot the lady, and starve to death yourself."

He tossed Jack's things overboard, and the named pirate leapt off the plank.

It was the first time in almost ten years that Almyra swore she felt something. And that feeling was the all too familiar feeling of heartbreak.


	13. Chapter Twelve

The crew of _the Black Pearl_ marched into the cave, Will in tow, and ready to slit his throat and spill his blood over the treasure.

Almyra stood beside Barbossa again, not ready to feel again, not after she lost Jack a second time. Or she thought that she had lost him a second time. Her jaw almost dropped when she saw Jack Sparrow pushing through the cheering crowd of pirates to reach the front.

Barbossa stopped when he saw Jack.

"Jack!" Will called, almost happily. He figured that meant Elizabeth was alive too.

"It's not possible," Barbossa said with wide eyes.

"Not _probable_ ," Jack corrected.

"Where's Elizabeth?" Will blurted.

"She's safe, just like I promised," Jack assured. "She's all set to marry Norrington just like she promised, and you get to die for her just like you promised. So we're all men of our word really, except for Elizabeth who is, in fact, a woman."

"Shut up!" Barbossa barked. "You're next." He reached back for Will to slit the boy's throat over the gold.

"You don't want to be doing that, mate," Jack warned.

Barbossa looked at him with a hateful expression. "No, I really think I do."

Jack raised his hands in surrender. "Your funeral."

Barbossa rolled his eyes and turned back to Jack. "Why don't I want to be doing it?"

"Well, because—" Jack paused to slap the pirate that was holding his shoulder on the hand to make him let go. "Because the _HMS Dauntless_ , pride of the Royal Navy, is waiting just outside for you."

* * *

"Just hear me out, mate," Jack pleaded as he now stood beside the chest of Aztec gold. "You let your men what they do best—"

There was cruel laughter from the crew.

"—bubba's your uncle, fanny's your aunt, and there you are with two ships. The makings of your very own fleet. Of course, you'll take the grandest as your flagship, and who's to argue? But what of _the Pearl_?" Jack almost stepped forward. "Name me captain. I'll sail under your colors, give you ten percent of me plunder, and you get to introduce yourself as _Commodore_ Barbossa. Savvy?"

"And I suppose in exchange, you want me not to kill the whelp?" Barbossa asked dryly.

"No no no, by all means, kill the whelp," Jack said with a dismissive wave toward Will. "Just not yet. Wait to lift the curse until the opportune moment. For instance—"

Jack scooped up a handful of the gold coins. "—after you've killed Norrington's men.

"Every—"

Jack dropped a coin.

"—last—"

Another coin.

"—one."

Another coin.

Almyra noticed Jack's slight of hand trick, though. She watched him slide the last coin he had picked up into his sleeve.

Will saw it too, and caught on. "You've been planning this from the beginning. Ever since you learned my name."

Jack nodded slightly. "Yeah."

Barbossa must've had plenty of time to think about Jack's proposition, because his next statement was, "I want fifty percent of your plunder."

"Fifteen."

"Forty."

"Twenty five. I'll buy you a hat—a really big one… Commodore."

Barbossa smiled slightly. "We have an accord."

"All hands to the boats!" Jack called before pausing. "Apologies. You give the orders."

"Gents, take a walk."

"Not to the boats?" Jack asked almost curiously.

Almyra raised an eyebrow at Jack. She didn't understand his plan, but she was sure she would catch on. She usually did with his plans. She had always been able to read him.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Jack rifled through the treasure as Barbossa watched.

Almyra watched her former flame with a raised eyebrow where she sat on the mound of treasure that held up the chest of Aztec gold.

"I must admit, Jack, I thought I had you figured," Barbossa said from where he stood from the pile of treasure, just below Almyra. "Turns out you're a hard man to predict."

"Me, I'm dishonest," Jack said simply, tossing treasure behind him. "And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you've got to watch out for, cause you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly… stupid."

Jack snatched a sword hilt and kicked down the pirate it belonged to, tossing the sword to Will.

Jack lunged for Barbossa, and Almyra shot to her feet, pulling her own sword in one smooth motion.

She swung her blade with a graceful twirl of her body, deflecting both Jack and Barbossa's blade as she landed to stand beside Jack.

"Traitor!" Barbossa hissed at her.

"No," Almyra growled, "I've _never_ been on your side."

Jack grinned and they lunged together.

Jack sliced the feather off of Barbossa's hat. "Ha!"

The fight continued until all three of them locked blades.

"You're off the edge of the map, mate," Barbossa snarled, "here there be monsters."

"It's a good thing he's got one on his side, then," Almyra snapped before Barbossa slung them backward.

* * *

The fight continued on, the three moving up a ledge inside the cavern.

Almyra swung and stabbed the undead captain through the ribcage, knowing it would do no good, but she couldn't help it. It at least slowed him down.

When she pulled the blade free, Barbossa kicked Almyra back, knocking the wind out of her.

He knocked Jack back next, tossing down his sword. "You can't beat me, Jack."

Jack shot back to his feet and shoved the blade through Barbossa's stomach.

Barbossa sighed exasperatedly and pulled the blade free, jamming it into Jack's chest.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

The sword ran through Jack's chest, and he made a choking noise as he stumbled back.

" _No!_ " Almyra cried out, lunging toward Barbossa to cut him off from Jack a second time, her sword slamming against his that he had picked up again, sharp metal clanging on metal.

"No," Barbossa said in shock, staring behind Almyra to look at where Jack had been falling.

She turned to look herself, gasping as she stared at Jack as a skeleton, covered in ratty clothing. "Jack?!" She knew he had picked up the coin, but that didn't make seeing him as a skeleton any less of a shock

"That's interesting." He grinned, though it was hard to tell because of the fact that he no longer had lips. He lifted an aztec gold coin and flipped it between his bone fingers. "Sorry, mate, I couldn't resist."

Almyra turned and pointed her sword back to Barbossa. "Maybe we can't kill you, but you can't kill us either."

She spun, and her sword collided with Barbossa's. She was fast in her fighting style, even quicker than Jack, and easily as unpredictable with her movements.

Jack joined her, and together Barbossa would've died twice over if he could've, but the bastard couldn't die.

"Love, I do believe we're fighting my least favorite kind of fight."

"The one you can't win?" Almyra questioned as she and Jack fell back to back for a moment.

"The kind where no one can lose." He corrected, running Barbossa through again.

"Well, darling, you're the one with the final piece to fix it," Almyra replied, stepping back to dodge a slashing swing at her own head.

"So what now, Jack Sparrow and Almyra James?" Barbossa asked dramatically. "Three immortals locked in a battle till judgement day and the trumpet sounds?"

"Or you could surrender?" Almyra and Jack suggested at the same time before their fight continued for a longer period of time.

While she distracted Barbossa, Jack tossed the coin back to Will, who slashed the palm of his hand to bleed after Jack slashed his palm to repay the blood he now owed.

"Myra, move!" Jack called, and she ducked for him to shoot Barbossa with his single shot.

The shot hit Barbossa perfectly through the chest, and the undead captain sighed. "Ten years you carry that pistol, and now you waste your shot."

"He didn't waste it," Will called from behind them as he dropped three gold pieces one by one back into the chest.

"Well, if he didn't…" Barbossa said as the second coin dropped, he shoved the sword through Almyra's abdomen.

She was fine for a moment, but once the last coin hit, her skin went as white as a sheet, and her breathing became quickly shallow. She could feel again, but the sword shoved through her stomach wasn't a great first feeling to have.

"I feel… cold." Barbossa said before he fell over dead, not bothering to pull the sword out as he fell.

"Jack," she said faintly, weakly pulling the sword from her stomach to show a crimson stained blade. She wavered where she stood before her legs finally gave out, and she fell.

"Myra!" Jack cried, jumping forward and catching her just before she could fall from the stack of treasure they had been balanced on.

Her head slumped against his shoulder, her eyes opening and closing slowly as she tried to press her fingers into the wound to halt the bleeding as much as she could with her weakening force. She looked up at Jack and smiled weakly. "You were right, Jack," she whispered, as loud as she could make herself speak as she grew weaker. "I do still love you."

"My Myra." He called softly, her blood staining his shirt as well as her own. "Little siren, what will I do with you?" He asked softly, his own hand joining her's to press against her abdomen. He looked quickly back towards the stone chest, the cursed coins of immortality.

Almyra shook her head. "They're too far, Jack." She whispered weakly. "You'd never reach them." Bloodstained fingers reached carefully for his face, twin lines of the dark red streaking down his cheek as her hand fell down again almost limply. "I wouldn't be able to feel anymore. It isn't… worth it."

Jack looked at her with stressed, inky eyes. "You would live, Myra. That's the only incentive I require."

She grabbed his hand as firmly as she could before he got up, halting him in his tracks. "I would rather die knowing that I still love you, than live with only the memories of what that feeling used to be... Ten years of that was enough torture." She found herself leaning a little heavier against him. "Just… stay with me?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Jack said quickly, one hand pressed against her abdomen while his other held her hand.

She slowly leaned up and kissed him weakly, and Jack could taste blood. She pulled away sharply, wincing and gasping in pain.

Jack hushed her quietly, brushing her light hair from her face. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. He just got her back. His revenge was supposed to help the both of them, not end this way.

He felt tears stinging his eyes, and swallowed hard, willing them away. His Myra was not going to die, not today.

Elizabeth rushed over with a cloth soaked in salt water, hoping to clean the wound and help stop the bleeding at once.

Almyra gasped in pain when the cloth touched her wound, and Jack gripped her hand all the tighter.

"It's alright." He whispered, but she could tell that it was far from it, even as her bleeding slowed thanks to Elizabeth.

"We have to get her to a doctor." Will said quickly, finally joining them and Jack glared at him.

"Terrific observation, William, do go fetch one for us on this abandoned island that happens to be lovingly called the _Island of the Dead_."

"Take her to _the Dauntless_ ," Elizabeth said quickly. "They can help her."

"Yes, so they can hang her high and over rocks as flies eat out her eyes as a warning to all pirates." Jack snapped. "I will not allow her to die, nor will I even consider taking her to people that will only save her to condemn her. She doesn't deserve it. She doesn't deserve to die at all."

Almyra had stopped bleeding, and none of them were sure if it was because she had run out or if she were finally starting her long road to a full recovery. Either way, Jack was in a small panic and Elizabeth looked at Will over the top of the pirates head's.

They both knew what had to happen, Almyra had to go back to _the Dauntless_ and to Port Royal to get treatment, but the hanging pirates weren't a mystery to anyone.

"Then she won't die." Will promised, eyes lighting quickly with an idea. "No one but us has seen her. And no one will believe the most fearsome pirate ship had had the curse of a woman aboard the whole time." He looked at Elizabeth quickly as she caught onto the idea.

"A prisoner." Elizabeth said rapidly. "She was taken prisoner by Barbossa and wounded in a battle between the two of you. No one will be the wiser. She will survive, but we have to go now."

Jack looked down at Almyra's pale face, gently tangling his ringed fingers in her light colored hair. He frowned for a moment, before leaning down and kissing her forehead.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Jack leaned against the metal bars of a cell again, his sentence had been set. All they needed now was dawn for the hangman. Almyra had been torn from him when they reached _the Dauntless_ , and thankfully for her Miss Swann had been a believable enough liar to convince them she was not a pirate. He traced the bars absentmindedly, whistling to the dog still guarding the cells for the keys. He wouldn't budge and Jack was all out of bones.

He wanted rum, and more than just for the usual reasons, he wanted it to try and forget that just hours after Myra had been able to feel him again, he would be hanging from the gallows while she was halfway across the port.

"Do you need a bone?" A soft female voice called from the doorway to the prison.

Jack looked up quickly at the sound of her voice, shocked to see Almyra standing before him in a white blouse that the bandages could almost be seen through and a long, dark skirt, though her boots were still visible beneath it. He almost smiled at the sight; she still hadn't wholly regained her color, but she was acting like herself again. "Myra? You shouldn't be here. If they find out you're a pirate—"

Almyra's laugh cut him off. "Jack, they'll find out I'm a pirate soon enough. Mister Turner and I… well, we have a plan."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "A plan?"

Almyra nodded. "A plan." She repeated. "And no, you can't know." She stepped closer to his cell again, carefully winding her hands through the bars. Her rings were gone, fingers bare and light against his arm as she trailed over it from elbow to wrist.

"Just trust me." She requested.

He smiled through the bars, glancing around for a moment and pulling her close enough to kiss her through them.

She returned the kiss with a smile, pulling away after a long moment.

"You feel that one?"

Almyra smiled again and nodded. "Just like you promised."

"I was hoping for a more romantic setting." He admitted. "But I have settled for less before."

She closed her eyes for a moment, humming softly, hesitating in her next statement. "I'll see you at the gallows, Jack."

"I'll be awaiting my rescue."

She kissed him once more before quickly backing from the prison, skirt swirling around her ankles as she started up the stairs and Jack waited for the rest of the night for the rope to be readied for him.

* * *

Jack stook shackled and waiting on the wooden platform, his feet resting over the trap door as his crimes were read out over the sound of drumming. "Jack Sparrow, your crimes are—"

"Captain," he muttered to himself, "Captain Jack Sparrow."

It went through a long list of crimes against the crown—including impersonating a cleric of the Church of England, which got a laugh out of Jack—and he spotted Almyra toward the back, a sword sheath on her belt.

He grinned rakishly at her, nearly winking before he spotted Will just beside her in a largely feathered hat and he was almost pouting within a second at the blacksmith's entrance before he turned back to Almyra and grinned again, raising his bound wrists slightly and shrugging before the noose was lowered over his head as Will rushed for the place where the governor and Elizabeth were standing while Almyra shoved herself a little closer to the front.

The lever was pulled, and the floor fell from beneath Jack.

Will shoved to the front the crowd there to watch the hanging, and he hurled his sword and Jack caught his feet on the sword, sliding but never falling off.

Almyra rushed the platform and cut free the rope with one hard slash of her sword, pulling Jack back up with one arm as she bounded gracefully onto the platform. "Feeling better, darling?" She asked with a smile.

"Much," he agreed, pulling the noose from his neck.

She held her sword out to fend off the attacking executor. "Are we ready, darling?"

"She's a pirate?!" Norrington asked in shock, looking at Elizabeth accusingly.

Elizabeth feigned a shocked expression. "I had no idea. She was a prisoner, with me."

Her father looked back at her in shock and Will grinned, quickly taking off after the pirates as Almyra dashed off with Jack through the soldiers up to the top of the crumbling tower Elizabeth had fallen from before all this pirate madness had begun.

Almyra held out her sword again, Jack beside her and starting to push down the muskets as they were held out at them before Will pushed his way into the circle himself.

"William," the Governor chided, beginning to rant about how he had saved him.

"You're a only a blacksmith." Norrington chided. "Know your place."

"I know my place." Will argued. "And it's between you and Jack."

"And Myra." Jack added. "Don't forget Myra."

"No," Elizabeth stepped in front of Almyra. "My place is between you and Almyra."

"Elizabeth!" The governor snapped in surprise.

She stood firm though, and Jack wrapped an arm around Almyra's waist, beginning to pull her backwards with him towards the wall, grinning as all the soldiers were told to stand down.

Almyra put a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder, nodding a thank you when she turned.

Elizabeth returned it.

Almyra smiled once more before Jack stepped back again, his arm light around her waist and careful of her still bandaged middle as he grinned at the soldiers and took a step back onto the wall.

"You'll forever remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Jack—"

Almyra pushed him back and they both fell toward the waves below.

They splashed in the water and swam together until they reached _the Pearl_ and were tugged up by ropes hanging off the side.

"Honestly," Jack complained as he grabbed hold of Almyra to be pulled up. "You couldn't have even let me finish, love?"

"I didn't find it necessary," she told him, swinging herself over the ship's side. "Now, where can I go change out of this bloody skirt?"

Jack grinned. "I could help you with that."

"No."

"But, Myra…"

She leaned over and kissed him softly. "Maybe later," she whispered. She moved to stand with the rest of the crew, who all let Jack step up to the top level of the Pearl.

"On deck, you scabrous dogs!" He ordered the rest of the crew. "Prep and make way!"

All but Almyra scrambled to work, and the only reason she didn't was because Jack caught her arm.

"I have you again, little siren. Now, bring me that horizon." He smiled over the ship, humming a tune. "And really bad eggs. Drink up, me hardies, yo ho!"


End file.
